We had a chat with those boys who played our Christmas party last year
Your new album is called Secret Robot Romance. What’s that all about then?
Ralph: It’s a tribute to our love of every thing sci-fi. A number of us are true geeks on that front. It also has a melancholy feel to it, which fits with the album very well.
Nick: It’s a combination of electronic and organic, mixing emotions, with the need for digital communication.
Adam: Basically people find it too easy nowadays to escape reality and lock themselves away in their own self-made cyberspace, rather than dealing with all the shit in their lives. Computers will never let you down like people will.
Gav: Except when you’re trying to write your dissertation at 3am in the morning on the day it’s due to be handed in!
If you were to pick two celebrity robots to have a romance who would you choose?
Nick: Robocop in a dress, getting it on with my microwave, while cooking a selection of Linda McCartney veggie foods.
Did: Short Circuit and a Rampant Rabbit.
Ralph: My first choice would have to be 7 of 9 from Star Trek Voyager. She’s not a complete robot, but she certainly has all the assets.
Gav: Well it’s got to be Twiki from Buck Rogers, for the amusing sex noises and then any Transformer for their versatility in the sack. Probably Megatron, he’d rip Twiki to shreds.
The official album launch is at the Social in August. What do you have planned?
Ralph: Expect some fireworks, and some Cosmic Rough Riding, with a few planetary collisions on the way.
Adam: A massive laser show courtesy of Jean Michel Jarre and a tombola hosted by Jean Claude Van Damme.
What are your favourite sci-fi films, TV programmes and authors? Have these helped to inspire the new album?
Nick: Dr Who, but they should have kept in Christopher Eccleston, the new one is crap, and Event Horizon because it reminds me of the sun shining in dark times, shabba!Ralph: Any sci-fi film that leaves you thinking ‘what the fuck was that all about then?’
Adam: Button Moon.
You all met at Glastonbury. I bet it would be great to go back as a band and play the festival…
Ralph: It definitely would be great, more than great. It would be like a childhood dream come true. To play in front of that many people on the Pyramid stage would be simply amazing, and something to aspire to.
Adam: We did play the Secret Garden Party last summer which was brilliant. Desmond Dekker (RIP) borrowed one of my keyboards in exchange for all the crisps and beer we could eat and drink. That’s the sign of a legend, god rest his soul.
You’ve had a few nightmare rock and roll moments on your recent UK tour...
Ralph: The pinnacle of it all would have to be the women’s piss leaking through the roof onto the stage at a venue in Leeds. The urine definitely had a distinctive odour which will not be easily forgotten. It delayed our stage time by about half an hour, but we still went on and rocked the show… although with piss sodden shoes.
Adam: On top of that, a week later we had a gig in Brixton and had our van keys nicked. It wasn’t fun in the slightest to be stranded in the middle of Brixton with no money, nowhere to stay and all of our musical equipment stuck in a room that was shortly to hold the weekly Brixton Gun Bazaar. Luckily enough one of our fans who Nick was hoping to get intimate with said she’d put us all up for the night, much to his dismay. She also turned out to be a member of the AA, which came in very handy.
What can people expect from your show at the Orange Tree?
Ralph: The earth to move, and open up before their eyes, and show them something that they’ve never seen before.
Nick: A tree that is orange.
Did: Good food, and some great bar service. Have you tried the Bangers in Mash in there? Exceptional.
Adam: Boombastic electro pop dance anthems that’ll make you clap your hands and stomp your feet.
Who are your favourite other Nottingham artists and bands?
Gav: I’m always impressed by Majik. Let the hair wars commence.
Ralph: Dan Rattomatic, Lo-Ego, Hinterland and Computerman to name but a few.
Adam: Yeah! Computerman are one of Nottingham’s brightest hopes of being that breakthrough band that puts our fair city on the map, along with us of course!
Did: Tindersticks, Headway, Mr C and that blues guitarist guy (Sam Lindo) who busks in the street.
Nick: We Show up on Radar and the first Seretone cover band Los Seretones.
What was the last thing that made you laugh?
Did: Gav’s hair. The state of the Seretone magic bus. It is really is shocking how bad it’s getting… I’m surprised we haven’t been pulled over. I think someone’s taken a paintball gun to it in the night… there’s loads of blue splats on it!
Nick: Did’s pulling technique on a Saturday night.
Ralph: Watching Nottingham’s very own Lea crying when she got evicted from the Big Brother house!
Adam: The guitarist from Young Offenders Institute who we supported at Junktion 7. He passed out on stage mid-song cause he was so pissed. Lightweight.
Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?
Gav: At the risk of sounding boring, keep supporting all the cool culture coming out of Nottingham. There’s no reason why we can’t finally have a scene to rival the big smoke, or the northern monkeys!
Ralph: Treat people how you want to be treated and do good things and you’ll get good things back.
Nick: Don’t take drugs kids, don’t drink too much, buy our album and drink those weetabix milkshakes.
Adam: Beware of the flowers ‘cause they’re gonna get you
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